BRACKETOLOGY - 3 DAYS TO GO

March Madness is really upon us now, as yesterday marked the first big day of the major conference tournaments. Although nobody managed to punch their ticket, there were several teams whose bubbles were burst during play on Thursday.

The biggest winner yesterday was Creighton, who didn't even play a game. They moved back into the tournament field, although teams like Florida, Virginia Tech, and Temple still have a chance to pass them with victories in their respective conference tournaments today. Another team celebrating is Minnesota, who knocked Northwestern out of contention and should have shored up an NCAA bid, although they can become a lock if they beat Michigan St today. San Diego St also improved its chances with the selection committee with its third victory of the year against UNLV. Over the past week, I've consistently had San Diego St in and UNLV out, although ESPN's well-respected Bracketologist Joe Lunardi has had UNLV in and SDSU out over this same period of time. With similar resumes, I just can't see UNLV being a 4th or 5th team from the Mountain West Conference to make the tourney with three head-to-head losses against SDSU, who moves on to the MWC semis.

Virginia Tech, Maryland, Penn St, Florida, and Michigan also avoided bad losses to keep their hopes alive. And don't forget to keep an eye on Temple, as they battle Xavier today in the Atlantic Ten semifinals. The selection committee seems to always think more highly of the A-10 than most of the "talking-heads" do. This may help Temple, who can improve on it's solid RPI with a win over Xavier, even if they were to lose in the finals.

There were three categories of losers yesterday:

• Those whose tourney hopes completely disappeared (Kansas St, Rhode Island, Miami (FL), Rhode Island)
• Those who are clearly outside the cut-off and now need other teams to lose (Providence, Northwestern, UNLV, New Mexico)
• Those who should still be in the field of 65, but can't feel as confident as they await Sunday's selections (Arizona is the only team falling into this category today)

Lastly, how did yesterday's results impact the idle teams? Mid-major bubble teams like Creighton, St. Mary's and Davidson moved up the board quite a bit. I have Creighton actually making the cut, but St. Mary's and Davidson don't have as impressive resumes and may not get the call from the selection committee with Creighton ahead of them. They need to keep hoping other bubble teams ahead of them lose today and that there are no surprise tourney winners (like Georgia last year). Speaking of which, Memphis survived a scare from Tulane, a game which probably had several bubble teams biting their nails.

Let's get down to it - Today's Bracketology has all the same Automatic Bids and At Large Locks, so there are still nine available spots for 20 teams on the bubble. Here's a look at my selections prior to the start of today's games. Selections appear in order.

Bubble Teams Looking In (Last Teams In) - 9

• Wisconsin
• Ohio St
• Michigan
• San Diego St
• Minnesota
• Penn St
• Arizona
• Creighton
• South Carolina

Bubble Teams Looking Out (Last Teams Out) - 6

• Florida
• New Mexico
• UNLV
• Maryland
• Virginia Tech
• Temple

Teams Still Hanging On To Hope - 5

• Auburn
• St. Mary's
• Northwestern
• Providence
• Davidson

GAMES TO WATCH TODAY

1. Ohio St vs Wisconsin (Winner becomes a lock)
2. Florida vs Auburn (Double elimination game)
3. Minnesota vs Mich St (Minn can become a lock)
4. Virginia Tech vs UNC (Va Tech can become a lock)
5. South Carolina vs Miss St (Elimination game for SC)
6. Michigan vs Illinois (Much can become lock)
7. Temple vs Xavier (Temple can become lock)
8. Maryland vs Wake Forest (Maryland can become lock)
9. San Diego St vs BYU (SDSU can become lock)
10. Penn St vs Purdue (Penn St can become lock)

Of course if enough of these bubble teams were to pull off upsets, they may still not be considered locks. It's hard to expect that more than a few of these teams can knock off their higher ranked opponents, but anything can happen....there's a reason they call it March Madness.